Saturday 3rd January dawned clear and cold, it looked like we were going to steal a sunny days climbing from the gods. Nope nope, they had other plans.

Members new and not so new met at 11am at Seawalls.   After the usual covid declaration we paired up for the day, mostly with people we hadn’t met before.

Kieran and Laura started up Morpheus with Anthony leading.  Dave WJ took Kev up Nightmare, Kev’s first climb in the gorge.   Ed climbed his first outdoor route, Idleburger buttress with me holding the rope and listening on speaker phone:)   Annabel and Barry watched warily from their fixed lines, and took some cool photos, (thanks for the cover shot).

It all looked like we were going to get away with it until about 1pm when it started raining, and then snowing.  With the air temperature near freezing it was a good call by everyone to withdraw.  Ed and I had already made it off our single pitch route and I was sat drinking coffee on the boot of my car.   We got to watch an orderly withdrawal as everyone got wetter and colder.  This seemed to have no effect on Laura, who i’m sure was smiling at the belay as Kieran made it up.

Anthony and I stayed warm with a rope unstucking exercise.  The end product of which is Morpheus now has an in situ ab station at the second belay off to the (climbers) left,  a 7mm cord loop around a solidly jammed block. This doesn’t have a maillon yet so anyone who happens to go that way consider leaving something and check the cord where the rope was pulled before committing.

Thanks again to everyone who made it out.  Everybody stayed cheerful even in the snow.  If its a sign of the enthusiasm for 2021 then its going to be a good year.  

As of yesterday we’re back to lockdown, full club meets won’t be running until restrictions ease.  In the meantime we’ll keep you posted for some activities, zoom presentations and maybe even a mountaineering book club.